Vienna to Manchester
The travel, from Austria to the UK, during WWI, even though both were enemy countries, would most certainly have been complicated, but not impossible, since Denmark, Sweden, and Holland, remained neutral during the war, thus retaining boat traffic with both Germany and the United Kingdom.
So, just for argument's sake, let’s consider how one would go about travelling from Austria to England during WWI.
As a matter of course, one would choose the shortest possible route. First by train from Vienna to Hamburg in Germany, a trip lasting at least 10 hours.
From Hamburg, again on a train, through Denmark directly to the port of Esbjerg, a travel of approximately 4.5 hours.
Another option would be to travel from Hamburg to Copenhagen, 6 hours, then from Copenhagen to the Danish port of Esbjerg, 3.5 hours by train from Copenhagen.
And from Esbjerg, on a boat to Immingham in England, which would have taken approximately 18 hours. The last leg of the journey, from Immingham to Manchester, again by train, was a 3.5-hour trip.
In total, reaching Manchester would have taken a couple of days. A long trip, but with a stop-over in Hamburg, not too exhausting.
Vienna to Manchester through Copenhagen?
What supports this supposition that Freud may have travelled to England thrrough C is the fact that Abraham provided Freud with the address of a lady, Ellen Lauritzen, living in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.
Thus, in the letter to Freud, on August 29, 1914, Abraham explained: There are various ways of getting news from England, including via Denmark. I am giving you, just in case, the address of a good friend who, if you mention my name, will certainly pass on any news (she knows German well). “Fröken Ellen Lauritzen, Kjobenhavn Ø, Strandboulevard 66". (1)
Notably, as always when a passage references Freud's suspicious activities, this reference had been excised from the 1966 edition of the letter and only was reinstated in the 2002 edition. Although Freud had already, since August, used van Emden in the neutral Netherlands as an intermediary forwarding letters between England and Freud in Vienna, Allegedly, also Froken (Miss) Ellen, was to act as yet another intermediary supplying Freud with news from England. (Freud also had an intermediary in Sweden. How many intermediaries did Freud need?
| As always, the chronology is important. The war started on August 4, 1914. On August 25, 1914, thus three weeks later, Freud informed Abraham that he, managed to get in touch with her [his daughter, Anna] via the Hague [in Holland] through Dr van Emden. (2)
Subsequently, in the letter of August 29, 1914, four days later, even though he, correctly assumed that van Emden would be the intermediary, (3) Abraham sent Freud - unasked for? - the details of the contact in Denmark.
Four days later, on September 3, 1914, Freud complained that, correspondence with van Emden and hence through him is also very unsatisfactory, (4) which would explain the need for an additional intermediary, but Abraham sent him Ellen's address before receiving Freud's complaint.
So, unless Abraham was a mind reader - he wasn't - why would he send, unasked for, Ellen's details to Freud? There's only one logical explanation. In the earlier letter, maybe in the one that seems to be missing, Freud must have asked Abraham to provide him with a contact in Denmark. And if so, why did need Freud a contact in Denmark?
Notably, there’s no mention anywhere, that Freud corresponded with the Freud family in Manchester. And, since there was no correspondence, between Freud and his family in Manchester, it is apparent that they didn't know about the intermediary’s existence. Thus, even if they wanted to, they wouldn't have been unable to inform Freud about Emanuel’s death.
Notably, Abraham not only provided Freud with the name of the woman and her address but also informed Freud that she knew German well. Why was this important if she was only supposed to be forwarding letters, presumably without reading them?
Was Freud going to write her letters, or maybe – on his way to England – if needing help – meet her? Would Freud, assuming he would be going via Copenhagen, need Ellen’s cooperation?
Censorship of Abraham's letter
This supposition is supported by the fact that the offending paragraph, mentioning Ellen’s existence, had been excised in the 1966 edition of Abraham's letter, only to be reinstated in the 2002 edition. Why remove an innocent reference to an intermediary? Or, maybe the reference wasn’t as innocent as it appeared. Notably, Emden’s name, who acted all through the war as an intermediary, appears many times in Abraham's correspondence, while Lauritzen’s name is never again mentioned.
Considering the amount of censoring of the 1966 version of Abraham and Freud’s letters, since they contained many offending themes that couldn’t see the light of day, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the editors, Abraham’s daughter, Hilda and, in the first place, Freud's son, Ernst, supervised by Anna Freud, had an interest in hiding any information incriminating not only Freud but also Abraham. Notably, it was Hilda who translated Abraham's letters, no doubt, bowdlerising their content, as well as rewriting the offending parts.
As the editors' foreword of the first edition of the letters revealed, 492 letters were extant; 220 were authored by Freud, and 272 by Abraham. Unsurprisingly, several letters from the collection were excluded, while others, allegedly because of discretion, were shortened, thus having inconvenient information excised. Thus, while Anna Freud censored the selection of letters, and their content, also, Lucie Freud, the wife of Ernst, as well as the widow of Karl, Hedwig Abraham-Allan, was assisting the editing (i.e. bowdlerising) of the letters.
Thus, the whole process of publishing of the letters was a family affair, in that way, both families keenly protecting the undeservedly good image of their psychoanalytical ancestors.
As the editors of the 2002 version admitted, the earlier edition of letters was severely censored, remarkably avoiding discussing the reason for the falsification of the Abraham Freud correspondence, notably, for some reason quoting the murderous Freud's elucidation, in his last hallucinatory work, Moses and Monotheism (1939, p. 20), that, the distortion of a text resembles a murder: the difficulty is not in perpetrating the deed, but in getting rid of its traces. (7)
Unfortunately, just like Freud, the "murderers" of Freud letters, for over a century, succeeded in getting rid of the traces.
As it is apparent, the first edition's translated materials had been seriously tampered with to hide Freud’s criminal activities, and Abraham’s role as his co-conspirator.
Rewriting Abraham's letter
Let’s try to rewrite the above statement about Freud needing an intermediary in Denmark in a way that better reflects Freud's preparations for England. This is again the original version:
There are various ways of getting news from England, including via Denmark. I am giving you, just in case, the address of a good friend who, if you mention my name, will certainly pass on any news (she knows German well). “Fröken Ellen Lauritzen, Kjobenhavn Ø, Strandboulevard 66”’.
This is an amended version of the passage, consistent with the idea of Freud’s England travel:
There are various ways of getting to England, including via Denmark. I am giving you, just in case, the address of a good friend who, if you mention my name, will certainly assist you (she knows German well).
Now, the passage makes more sense. Should Freud want to go to England via Denmark, and need assistance, Miss Lauritzen, fluent in German, would assist Freud. (Since she was acquainted with Abraham, she may have spent some time in Germany, and/or may have been his former analytic patient.)
Freud's England travels
Freud was no stranger to this kind of travels, having visited England for the first time at age 19.
This is how he revealed the plans for his journey, in the letter, of July 20, 1875, sent from Hamburg to his youthful friend, Eduard Silberstein:
I am sailing at midnight on the Huddersfield for Grimsby, from where, without delay, I shall proceed [by train?] to Manchester. (8) True, in 1914, due to the war. Freud, aged 68, couldn’t travel directly, to Grimsby, by the same route, as in his youth, but going through Denmark, to Esbjerg, would be only a minor inconvenience.
Did Freud, and on what date, travel to, or through, Hamburg during the end of September and, anytime during November? in September, Freud visited his daughter, Sophie, in Hamburg, which his letter to Abraham, of September 22, 1914, sent by Freud, from Hamburg, exactly 25 days before Emanuel’s death, confirms. Whether he had any other business in Hamburg, besides visiting his daughter and her family, Freud didn't reveal.
(1) Abraham, Karl & Freud, Sigmund, The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham 1907-1925, (2002, p. 593).
(2) Abraham & Freud, (2002, p. 589).
(3) Abraham & Freud, (2002, p. 592).
(4) Abraham & Freud, (2002, p. 596).
(5) Abraham, Karl & Freud, Sigmund, A Psycho-Analytic Dialogue; The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham 1907-1926, (1965, p. vii).
(6) Abraham & Freud, (2002, pp. 10ff).
(7) Abraham & Freud, (2002, p. 43).
(8) Freud, Sigmund & Silberstein, Eduard,The Letters of Sigmund Freud to Eduard Silberstein 1871–1881, (1991, p. 122).
Continued on #6